First off, this isn't a lobby for a public option so hold the flaming please.

I honestly don't have the words to express how sickeningly parasitic health insurance companies are. I worked for a company that handled benefits & claims for Blue Cross of one particular northern state. Simply because of how stressed working for an entity I despised made me, I quit. Hopefully for more meaningful and greener pastures, but the fact is that I had to tell physicians that benefits would not be honored because such things as pregnancies and cancer were considered pre-existing conditions. I was told that the OS we used was designed to deny virtually all claims the second they were uploaded, regardless of how innocuous or routine they were. I would try adjustments on claims that should've been paid outright, only to find out that said claims had been in limbo for months on end and needed to be escalated. A small portion of the healthcare industry, but one that can give you a glimpse as to the horrors that are inflicted on not only patients, but doctors as well by these sadistic money leeching entities.

And now I find that one of these private-sector companies is actually suing a state because the government of Maine refused to gurantee them a three percent take home when they made over 60 billion dollars last year? I hope the judge throws it out, and the state counter sues and brings them to their financial knees while still forcing them to honor the premiums that they've been paid so far this year. It would be a small victory, but one that would be the proverbial shot across the bow of big pharma. Might amount to something, might not but it would be a start.

Far as how to fix the problem, I'm at a loss. I'd agree with a public option if it weren't so convoluded with fines and taxes on those who still couldn't afford the premiums... or for that matter if it was run by anyone other than what has proven, especially in recent weeks if not months, to be an ever more inept and out-of-touch government. Stories like this just make me feel like we're screwed whether the government runs health care or if the private sector does.

Good catch man, flagged as I was not aware of this.

your third option question,,,,

i think about this too,,,, what about americans banding together to form nonprofits that are not obsessed by share values and stock numbers,,,,, but providing real service,, and not beholden to the almighty dollar




if 2 million people donated $20 to start up a health insurance firm i'm sure we'd get it rolling and then provide the cheapest premiums possible and once the bills are paid and 1 % set aside the rest goes into some real research for real cures

if ron paul can raise 6 mil in a day we can start a public insurance company too